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Once again Opera Rara has delved into the archives of 19th-century salon music and come up with a recital full of treasures, minor perhaps, but nonetheless worth the detour. Angelo Mariani is best known as one of Verdi’s earliest conductors, but his two songs recorded here show a composer with a talent for the elegiac, tinged with melancholy. Bruce Ford’s impeccable control almost convinces us that these are masterpieces, the high diminuendo close to Ad un fiume (the song progressing traditionally from minor to major) breathtaking in its control and appropriateness. Majella Cullagh is also prominently featured, and her delivery of Carolina Unger-Sabatier’s Addio sparkles throughout. Unger, as readers will recall, made her debut as mezzo soloist at the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and tradition has it that she was the one who turned the composer around to acknowledge the applause. She later became a prima donna in Italy, and wrote this Farewell after three successful seasons in Naples. Patrick O’Connor’s notes tell us that it is likely that the piece is filled with references to works she performed, while providing a thorough workout for the singer. Offenbach’s Etoile requires a cello obbligato, but it is the soprano Elizabeth Vidal whom we admire, not only here but also in songs by Fabio Campana and Donizetti, all three in French. It is unfortunate that Vidal’s career has been overshadowed by the ascendance of Nathalie Dessay, for she, too, is a vocal marvel.

An Opera Rara newcomer is Danish soprano Sine Bundgaard, who makes the most of her vocal rivalry with Cullagh in Antonio Giuglini’s duet, Il passato. Ford and Barry Banks tackle the close harmony of La rose (originally for soprano and tenor) by Giovanni Rubini, who—like Giuglini—was a singer who also composed; its sentiments perhaps sound less strange today when uttered by two men than would have been the case in the first half of the 19th century. Luigi Carlini’s trio in homage to a tree sparkles because of its rhythm, while Edoardo Vera’s three contributions are variable in quality, from a forlorn solo for mezzo, to a far more interesting trio, Le ombre, more familiar as set by Schubert under its first line, “Non t’accostar all’urna.” His drinking song, given a rollicking rendition by Barry Banks, rounds out our picture of the composer.

Pianist David Harper seizes every opportunity that comes his way, while giving solid underpinning in the more trivial accompaniments. As usual, we are grateful to the producers of this CD for searching out the byways and back roads seldom traveled, thus rounding out our understanding of the period.

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